Perfume Genius Quotes

Too many people focus on writing what they think they should write, what should be in a song, what radio would want.

My standards are based on shows I like, like 'Girls' or 'Arrested Development.' And they're all shows that are groundbreaking. I guess in the back of my head, I think, If you're not being groundbreaking, then what are you doing? If you're not being ballsy and honest and vulgar, then what are you doing?

If there was a direct influence on a song, I never hid it.

I've done bits of writing for other people but when I'm writing music as Years & Years, I'm using my life and my stories and my experiences. I want it to be authentic and real but also to work as a pop song - I never want to just put in a cheesy line.

We don't want to become like country artists where there's a formula.

I'm kind of a perfectionist about my songwriting. If I don't mean it, I don't think it's any good.

I'm glad that people realize that I am a songwriter. I just want them to take away the fact that I'm honest, and that I'm putting in work on the sonic side.

I want that every piece of art be honest, never mind what it is about.

I don't think songs have to be like these super-#1-smash-hit-sounding songs, because I think it's more important that it's like, 'Hey! This is coming out of me. This is something I connect with. This is something that I like to sing.'

I do not like people writing songs and then other people singing them. A lot of people don't even sing their own songs anymore. It's like producers these days have ghost producers; 'I don't produce, but I am a producer.'

David Lee Roth had the idea that if you covered a successful song, you were half way home. C'mon - Van Halen doing 'Dancing in the Streets'? It was stupid. I started feeling like I would rather bomb playing my own songs than be successful playing someone else's music.

Songwriters tell the truth.

I certainly want people to like my writing, but I know that if I write with the intention of trying to please people, the writing will not be good because it will not be authentic. So, ironically, I have to be willing to write something strange or unlovable in order to write anything truly good.

I think the success of my work stems from being truthful.

If anything, I want to be seen as a singer-songwriter rather than a pop artist.

It's nice to sometimes get things out of life, rather than stealing from other artists. I'm trying to steal from the real people.

The last thing we would want is for our fans to feel that we're trying to find the 17th opportunity to sell them the same song.

Learn your instrument. Be honest. Don't do anything phony. There is so much crap floating around. There is plenty of room for a bit of honest writing.

Don't try to follow any trends, just concentrate on writing great songs and knowing your instrument. All the other stuff will fall into place.

I write my songs and just play them, so there are not a whole lot of fireworks. As long as the music comes first, it's OK to have some fireworks. But not the other way around.

All of my music is honest.

I've always been an artist who's about being real and about telling the truth and making music with integrity and talking about something.

'Playing House' works because we're being supremely honest to what we think is funny and not what we think other people think is funny.

I wanted to create a body of work that I was proud of. It's come from honesty and integrity, without forcing anything from myself, the ideas had to come instinctively and organically. Whether that translates to people in that way, it's kind of out of my hands now.

Whether I'm writing for myself or someone else, I'll always write a song that I would feel comfortable singing.